I don't often post much on the front page, mostly due to my own inherant laziness, but I feel like I need to say this. A lot of you are aware of KOF XIII, I'm sure. Im also sure that there are plenty of you that have yet to give it a try. Basically, if you haven't tried this game, I really REALLY think you should. As someone who has played just about every fighting game since 2001, (Except all the anime inspired stuff, because it just doesn't appeal) I am pretty vocal about what I don't like in the games I play. This is pretty extensive btw, so if youre keen for some reading and some gameplay videos, hit the Read More button and get on the BEST FIGHTING GAME EVER train.

Hey everyone, well 2011 is just about behind us and with that we had a year with an awesome start middle and a semi good end.

So I thought I should post a minor recap of the year,

2011 saw the introduction of Standing Fierce as a website and as the central hub for fighting game related information in NZ.

Standing Fierce then went on to organise a total of 4 pretty sweet events and numerous Ranbats and Casual Gaming Sessions. Each of which helped build the community into a stronger field of players.

2011 also saw the end of a very influental website for alot of us, NZism. I know there are a lot of mixed feelings on this matter and I won't stir anything up, but I still pay respect where respect is due.

Standing Fierce gained its first Sponsor, Livewire. Which is a pretty major step, thanks to Livewire and the team there.

Our first tournament for the year was First Blood, which saw our first tournament with the much anticipated Marvel Vs Capcom 3.MVC3With Massiah coming out on top over King Kung. These 2 guys setting the bar for future MVC3 events.1st: Massiah2nd: Toots(King Kung) 3rd:Lennysaurous

SSF4Then in SSF4 the Smash Bros. showing everyone not to forget about this game with a 1st and 2nd finish respectively for Jack and Fong.1st:Ahduhmah2nd:Gankatron3rd:ironSol

So it looks like we'll finally get King of Fighters this week after multiple delays. A lot of people are interested in the game but have never played a King of Fighters game before so I thought I would post up a few helpful links for those transitioning from a game like SF4 or other Capcom fighters.

DandyDLC is responsible for some of the best KOF tutorials on the net including this brilliant overview of KOF mechanics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75Lz1Drp8g&noredirect=1. That video is only part 1 so if you're interested in the game I can't recommend these videos enough.

Hopefully distribution issues and delays haven't killed this game in New Zealand as it is a good alternative to SSF4 if you don't like SSF4's comeback mechanics (Ultras) or like me you would prefer fighters still used 2D sprites!

Hopefully these links help those new to the series or those that just want to know more about the game before trying it for themselves.

This friday, same deal as last week, except this time we're running UMVC3 exclusively, then after the ranbat tournament part has finished we shall be running 1 setup for casual UMVC3 and one for casual KOF13.

Thanks to some pretty sweet work by DJ Reminise/BLADE, the 4 & Rotary Nationals will also be having a Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting and Super Street Fighter 4 tournament. So we thought, we might aswell help out and get down there so come down guys and show off your skills to a bigger audience. We've never had a chance to show case how awesome these games are to such a large audience.

Myself, BirryWong and a few others will be there on the day, at a stall, (Churs to Blade for that one) where we will be selling the sweet sweet awesomeness that is Street Fighter. Tons of prizes, promo girls.....it's gonna be epic.

So as most of you know Auckland had our last event for the year on the 10th of December. We still don't have all the videos to upload yet but Dan, who captured videos on the day, has given me a link to the UMvC3 Grand Finals so as a teaser to the other videos I present to you the Christmas Damager UMvC3 Grand Finals!There will be mulitple vids to follow including Winners, Losers and Grand finals for both SSF4 and UMvC3. If this thread is anything to go by ( http://www.standingfierce.com/forum/site-feedback/rankings-1/9863?limit=20&offset=0 ) this gives Wellington and Christchurch a chance to study up !

This will be the final fighting game event held in Auckland for 2011. The last tournament for Street Fighter 4:AE before the release of AE 2012 and the very first for Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. With a whole bunch of new characters and altered system mechanics will we see a new champ for UMVC3? Will a Yun, Yang or Fei Long manage to win their first tournament in New Zealand before the mighty nerf bat strikes?